The Lenz Family now make the 2nd floor of their house, the main living quarters, just in case flood waters rise again.

NORTH SIOUX CITY, SD (KTIV) –
There are those who say they have no reason to come back to Riv-R-Land Estates. But one family says their community ties are stronger than mother nature’s will.

And while floods never come at a good time for anyone, the Lenz family had just brought home a new baby in 2011 when flood waters started to rise.

“We’d seen it high before, didn’t really believe it until it started happening,” Todd Lenz said.

The Missouri River flooded their home, and damaged it beyond repair. They were devastated.

“What’s gonna happen next? What do we do?” the Lenzs wondered.

That’s when members of the Redeemer Lutheran Church in Sioux City intervened.

“The Lenz family out of our 1600 members are the only ones who lost their homes totally from the flood,” Pastor David Zirpel from Redeemer Lutheran said.

Redeemer Lutheran Church members are used to helping out in times of disaster like hurricanes and tornadoes. But the 2011 flood kept them close to home.

“So when the flood came up and one of our families lost their homes totally to the flood we decided to stay here and help them,” Pastor Zirpel said.

“It was just unbelievable, just a snowball effect. Things started happening, and contacts were being made, and people were coming forward and all these volunteers were here,” Jaime Lenz said.

Over ten months their church worked to rebuild their home on the spot their old one once stood. Sunday they celebrated with a special blessing, and with those who helped. They say the future now looks a lot different.

“It looks pretty promising, we’re very blessed to meet all of our Redeemer friends and family and everyone involved in the project,”

The Lenz say they cannot forget this experience and say they plan to pay it forward by volunteering in the future.

The “Meals With a Mission” group knows what to do with a captive audience — offer delicious food and people will come! The lunch proceeds at Ruth’s auction went to our current project. Todd even got in on the action and helped serve up some food.

Outbound Servants with Redeemer Lutheran Church in Sioux City, Iowa making a difference one by one, building a new house in Riverland, South Dakota.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE

An old man walked up a shore littered with thousands of starfish, beached and dying after a storm. A young man was picking them up and flinging them back into the ocean. "Why do you bother?" the old man scoffed. "You're not saving enough to make a difference." The young man picked up another starfish and sent it spinning back to the water. "Made a difference to that one," he said.

Like many volunteers who helped in the Mississippi Gulf Coast post-Katrina, I returned overwhelmed by the magnitude of their need. The story of the starfish helped me find perspective. I know that God has a plan to work through me, to make a difference.
-Melanie, The Navigator